User blog:John Pan/ZC-8
ZC-8 A unification of armored forces in Asia is pretty difficult. From Japanese Type 10s to Singaporean Leopard 2s to Indian T-90s, there's hardly a common design. To fit with their new “superior firepower and mobility” combat doctrine, the IPC decided to pool together the design ingenuity of Japan, Korea, Singapore, and China to develop a lightweight main battle tank with unparalleled firepower. They delivered a 40-ton tank with a monstrous 8' cannon. Crew Composition *Driver *Gunner *Commander Sensory To keep production costs low, the main gun gets a proper day/night optical targeting telescope, a radar rangefinder, and the commander gets a 360-degree panorama sight. The driver gets a normal periscope and a commercial radar range detector in its rear. A North Star “北斗星” friendly-tracker is standard. Upgrades Improved Computerized Targeting Suite To improve the ZC-8's ability to find and engage enemy targets, the vehicle's main gun can receive a computer-assisted binocular day/night optical targeting system (able to directly function as an optical coincidence rangefinder), a thermal sight, and a radar rangefinder. Also has target lock-on capabilities. Improves detection and engagement of enemy targets, even in jammer-filled environments. Armament Type 1101 L/10 203mm (1) The first cannon developed by the IPC, the Type 1101 is a short-barreled 203mm cannon. Short barrels are lighter—reducing vehicle weight, and don't get obstructed as much as a long barrel—improving urban combat ability. Fitted with a hydraulic autoloader (203mm shells weigh over 90 kilos) to ensure a maximum fire rate of 8 shells a minute, the Type 1101 can unleash either tandem-HEAT or HE shells from its paltry stockpile of 20 shells. Its 203mm tandem-HEAT shells can rip through two meters of RHA, and the HE shells create craters large enough to hide entire light vehicles. Iron Guard (1) The choice medium (general-purpose) machine gun in the IPC's arsenal (the Type 501), fitted into an Iron Guard sentry system. Allows for completely automatic anti-infantry capability, and it already has the Opteron chips to make sure that no civilians are harmed. Upgrades PHE For combat flexibility, the Type 1101 can be loaded with programmable high-explosive shells. They can be set to detonate above a target (airburst), in front of the target (proximity detonation), or inside a target (delayed detonation), allowing it greater flexibility when engaging targets behind cover, spread out targets, and hardened targets. Thunderfist “雷拳” ATGM The problem with having a short barrel and a massive caliber is that your shells fly slow, meaning that they don't fly far. To remedy the lack in long-range anti-tank firepower, the Type 1101 can load gun-launched Thunderfist ATGMs. Fitting in perfectly into the cannon's 203mm bore, the Thunderfist is equipped with a massive 20kg tandem-HEAT warhead, a hardened steel case to protect it against hardkill ECMs, a slow-burning rocket motor to deliver it to a target 7km away, and an active-millimeter seeker to deliver it on target every time. Replaces half the stock of tandem-HEAT shells. Type 502 HMG (1) The Type 502 is the most powerful machine gun fielded by the Superpowers. Firing high-powered 14.5mm x 114mm bullets, the weapon is a supersized CIS 50MG, a gas-operated, air-cooled, belt-fed heavy machine gun, which does include the CIS 50MG's dual feed system. This allows it to switch from one type of ammunition to the other with a flick of the switch. Replaces the Type 501, and reduces ammunition capacity by half. Protection The ZC-8 gets hardened steel armor plating that allows light cannon rounds to bounce off. Anything larger than a 30mm shell has the potential to pass through. Spall liner is standard. However, it has the space for passive armor modules, as well as a Steel Palm ECM. Steel Palm packs a fire control radar, IR and laser dazzlers, and six 40mm tubes. The weapon system can intelligently detect, track, determine whether or not the projectile is a threat, and if so, blows it out of the sky with a 40mm AHEAD shell. It is equipped with a siren to warn nearby friendlies to take cover, as the 304 balls of tungsten that it unleashes each time it fires can cause significant collateral damage. Upgrades HIC Armor Module The High-Intensity Conflict Armor Module is a bolt-on kit that can significantly raise the ZC-8's passive armor protection. Consisting of aluminum spaced armor, nanometric steel plating, ceramic blocks, and ERA tiles, the HIC Armor Module can allow the ZC-8 to survive 120mm APFSDS rounds on its turret face. Increases weight by 10 tons, however. LIC Armor Module A heavy aluminum cage can be applied to the ZC-8, wrapping all around the vehicle, with an independent cage for its turret. Vastly improves protection against shape-charge weapons, even able to counter tandem-HEAT threats. Composite counter-mine belly armor is also applied, as well as little cages for all of its secondary weapons and sensors. Increases weight by 5 tons, however. Fire Javelin “火標” ECM The latest development in Asian tank hardkill ECM systems, the Fire Javelin is a high-powered Neodymium laser. Firing light in the 1.06 micron range (near-IR), it can effectively overheat a target missile/rocket's skin, causing it to fall apart in midair. Finding its targets via a hemispheric IR early-warning suite, intelligently picking them via its own supercomputer, and targeting them via an IR telescope and a radar, the Fire Javelin can find and destroy an incoming missile/rocket/shell up to 3 kilometers away. However, bad weather deteriorates it's firepower significantly. Mobility The ZC-8 runs on a Mitsubishi 40-liter direct-injection turbodiesel V8, and able to push out a maximum of 1,000 horsepower and 3,000 kg/m of torque. The engine powers the two treads via a CVT transmission, giving the 40-ton tank decent off-road mobility and a road topspeed of 100kmph. It can achieve such speeds driving backwards as well. Upgrades Mazda M210B-MSP A costly but very effective upgrade to the drivetrain, a Mazda M210B-MSP Wrankel rotary engine can be dropped into the engine bay. Displacing 21 liters (but due to the unique design of rotary engines, their “equivalent” displacement is twice as much as a piston engine, so you could say it displaces 42 liters) with six rotors, side exhaust ports, direct fuel injection, improved apex seals, and being completely made out of titanium, the M210B-MSP represents the pinnacle in rotary engine technology. The engine, plus two turbochargers, twists out 2,400hp, and is actually more compact than the original Mitsubishi diesel. Increases speed and acceleration, boosting agility as well. Category:Blog posts